This Currier and Ives lithograph called The Farmer’s Home Harvest shows the farmer’s harvest on a beautiful autumn day with men gathering hay in the field and loading it onto an ox drawn cart. In the background one can see the farmer’s home and some family members, a river and mountains with a horse and carriage along the river road.
In the larger prints, it can be seen that there are several well dressed women in the background, one on the porch of the farm house, gazing at the river, while three converse in the yard next to the gracious farm home.
This scene shows an affluent Victorian farm home with the woman conducting themselves as if there was no work to do. It gives an illusion of peace and tranquility, joy, happiness, and a Victorian rosiness to the hard work of a farm. Just as Currier and Ives sought to show history in their dramatic pictorial presentations of news worthy events, so too did they attempt to give a lasting gentle impression of a romantic way of life – the American farm life.
This lithograph, The Farmer’s Home Harvest is also available in print as part of the Vintage American Scenes Wall Calendar at our Zazzle Store.